by | October 1, 2025 · 9:36 pm

Things I Ate At The C.N.E In 2025

After doing this since… holy shit… 2010, I think I may have finally designated one C.N.E. food item to the Risky Fuel Fall Fair Eating Challenge Hall Of Fame — the Carla’s Cookie Box Butter Tart. I bought 18 of these bad boys from at the Ex this year and experienced a euphoric blood sugar spike with each of the many variants I tried. But Carla’s tarts are well worn territory that dear readers can explore in the links at the bottom of the page. This year there was a new, more adventurous usage of the humble butter tart that needed to be explored.

Here are the things I ate at the Canadian National Exhibition in 2025:

Dirty Sodas Orange Float 6.9/10
So apparently dirty sodas are a thing meant for teens in ultra-conservative states to go drink at the local malt shop instead of doing meth or Footloose dancing or whatever. Most of the fancy ones at the stall were sold out so I got the Orange Float. It was basically orange soda and heavy cream to make it taste like a creamsicle. Creamsicle is a top flavour, so it was fine.

Coco’s Corndogs Deep Fried Co Meatball Mozzarella Corn Dog 6/10
The first example of what would be a recurring theme this year — corndogs gone wrong — this was a corndog with a splash of tomato sauce and some mozzarella melted on it. It doesn’t really work to fancy up a corndog in this way.

Dino’s Slushy With Alc Copy 10/10
I don’t remember what actual flavour this was, but what I do remember is that these liquor slushie things are absolutely awesome when it’s hot and you’ve been wandering a giant parking lot filled with unwinnable midway games while wavering in a sunstroke ‘n’ sugar delerium.

Pizza Pizza Sweet & Spicy Bang Bang Deep Fried Pizza On A Stick 6.9/10
One of the big novelty food draws this year, Pizza Pizza decided to coat their slices with crushed up Doritos and then deep fry them. The experience actually turns what is normally the most cardboardiest, only-eat-in-moments-of-desperation slice into something that’s an almost Shein deep dish experience. It was bizarrely, inexplicably tolerable.

King’s Hawaiian Bun 6/10
This was a free sweet bun that was being given away as a food sample. Respect to the freebie pedlars even though this was a pretty neutral experience.

Banana Icee
graded 6.2 in 2022

Sushi Corn Dog 5.6/10
Another of the big draw stunt foods for 2025 this was a corndog that was built around a weiner encased in rice and seaweed and then battered and deep fried in the traditional corndog manner. It was absolutely Godzilla-like in size and was a proportionally failure both as a fusion food experience and as a cautionary metaphor about the horrors humanity is capable of creating and unleashing on itself.

Caramel Sample 6/10
We think this might be a caramel sample, though we can’t remember for sure.

Somersby Apple Cider 10/10
A solid sweet cider.

Steamwhistle 10/10
A bit of a baseline beer in the Risky Fuel household, Steamwhistle is neither challenging enough in its flavour to be annoying, nor light enough to be a refuge for binge drinkers. It’s somewhat surprising that after all these years of CNE-going this was the first time I’d ordered one on the grounds.

I Love Churros Caramel Churros
graded 6.1 in 2023

Dutch Frites With Peanut Sauce
graded 6.1 in 2022

Random Mini Donut 7.3/10
If you’ve traversed enough mean streets of Toronto you’ve likely seen these deep fried mini-donut places popping up everywhere. With a consistency that’s slightly more cruller-y than the traditional Tiny Tom’s offerings these delectable little units are quite compelling. Someone was handing these out as freebies on the concourse. We never did find the proper stall.

Legend Dairy Butter Tart Funnel Cake 9/10
This was an absolutely awesome slurry of pick-apart funnel cake mashed up with melty chunks of butter tart topped with a healthy dose of vanilla soft serve. It all worked perfectly and was probably the top stunt food of the season.

Butter Chicken Corndog 5.9/10
Back in 2023 the Rick’s Good Eats CNE Special Butter Chicken Overload ended up being the surprise champ for the season and a confabulation we still think about to this day. The side effect of this triumph was that we’re now easily swayed by other instances of fall fair food thats “butter chicken-ified.” We probably need to stop this chase for risk of it becoming some trudgingly joyless Sisyphean quest.

Nickel Brook Party Dad Crushin’ IPA 10/10
As someone who has come to realize high IPA beers are the refuge of the type of people who punch children and scam old people I’ve mostly moved on from that experience. Calling your beer “Party Dad Crushin’ IPA” is enough to pull me back in for a go, though.

Nickel Brook Cider 10/10
This was “whatever flavour they were selling at their booth.”

Candy Floss Fudge 6.3/10
We’ve almost run the table with all of the relevant varieties of fudge that can be found both in the Craft Building and in the other halls. This technicolour candy floss concoction, however, represented a brave new opportunity. It turns out though that it doesn’t really compare to the more classic variants.

Mascot It’s Ok Fruit Punch Vodka Mix Drink 10/10
Not technically a CNE drink, I got this at the It’s OK Festival happening a couple football fields away from the Ex where I went to go see throwback R&B rapper Kalisway. The drink did get a little gross and powdery by the end, but there was reward in being able to go on this side-quest.

Coca Cola
You know circumstances were bleak when I give up and have a Coke at the Ex. Apparently this is the fifth time I’ve given in and done this.
graded 3.0 in 2010
graded 3.6 in 2011
graded 5 in 2013
graded 5.1 in 2017

Broedie’s Butter Burgers Butter Burger 7.2/10
Once you know that one of restaurants’ big secrets is “douse everything in butter” then the idea of a smashburger that’s been butter-fried doesn’t seem all that exotic. It was still a fine though fundamentally conventional burger.

Mr Pickle Deep Fried Frozen Watermelon 5.5/10
The “frozen” part about this equation was mostly not a lie. It was basically a battered up, almost frozen chunk of watermelon that got quick dipped into the deep fryer. I’m pretty pro-watermelon, but this was not a magical experience. This is the line where “make it X, but deep fry it” has gone too far.

Legend Dairy Deep Fried Butter Tart 8.6/10
Almost as transcendent as the funnel cake experience, the deep fried butter tart may rate as the best “deep fried” sweet item save for the classic deep fried Mars bar. The butter tart is a near perfect item to flash fry encased in a batter layer that sends the tart’s physical state into some warm, gooey topsy-turvy places. Only the absence of soft serve ice cream kept this from being truly elite.

The Cheese And Caramel One Chicken Fingers 5.9/10
The coating was unnecessarily hard and crusty and, much like with its cheese and caramel popcorn cousin, people who are too fond of this combination as part of their chicken finger experience may be mentally broken.

Additional reading:

Things I ate at the CNE in 2024. Including Deep Fried Pickle Oreos and Deep Fried Butter Chicken Lasagna.

Things I ate at the CNE in 2023. Including Funnel Cake Chicken Sandwich and Thanksgiving Dinner On Top Of Fries.

Things I ate at the C.N.E. in 2022. Including the San Francescos Leaning T.O.wer of Pisa and Mustard Ice Cream.

Things I didn’t eat in 2021 because Global pandemic blues closed the EX.

Things I ate at the C.N.E. in 2020 (COVID National Exhibition Edition). Including Double Wiener Cheese Curd Pretzel Hot Dog and Bacon-Wrapped Veggie Corn Dog.

Things I ate at the CNE in 2019. Including the Snickle Dog and the Cheesecake Factory General Custard Sundae.

Things I didn’t eat at the CNE in 2018 because I boycotted to support unionized workers who were fighting The Man.

Things I ate at the CNE in 2017. Including Deep Fried Chicken Foot and Savory Fried Spaghetti Donut Ball.

Things I ate at the CNE in 2016. Including Bug Dog with Roasted Crickets and Deep Fried Butter Tarts.

Things I ate at the CNE in 2015. Including Corrado’s S&M Burger and Iron Skillet’s Frosted Flakes Chicken On A Stick.

Things I ate at the CNE in 2014. Including Fran’s Thanksgiving Turkey Waffle and Coco’s Fried Chicken Cocoa Chicken.

Things I ate at the C.N.E. in 2013. Including Nutella Jalapeno Poppers and the S’more Dog.

Things I ate at the C.N.E. in 2012. Including the Chocolate Eclair Dog and Bacon Nation Nutella BBBLT.

Things I ate at the C.N.E. in 2011. Including the Krispy Kreme Hamburger and Deep Fried Twix.

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by | September 7, 2024 · 10:42 am

Things I Ate At The C.N.E. In 2024

It was not a banner year in the world of Canadian National Exhibition stunt food eating. Either vendors have run out of ideas, they’re just not trying anymore, or my willingness to pay inappropriate amounts of money to put unpleasant items in my mouth has caused me to freeze up, skip and mentally block out some of the most novel items.

I still managed to try a bunch of weird-ass things, though. Here is what I ate at the C.N.E. in 2024:

Colossal Onion’s Spiral Spuds 6/10
I generally try to avoid “classic” Ex foods, but Colossal Onion’s Spiral Spuds and their tasty deep fried chips plus cheese-like sauce, bacon bits and onion nibs was solid if not adventurous.

Korean Fried Chicken Poutine 6.6/10
Billed as “classic poutine topped with Korean Fried Chicken and topped with Daikon radish and pickled red onions,” this was exactly what it said it was. These two things, however, pair up about as well as fried chicken and waffles. Which is to say they shouldn’t really go together and their pairing makes no sense.

Tzatziki Cheesecake 4/10
One of the big stunt foods for the season, this featured conventional New York style cheesecake with a tzatziki buttercream topping and a couple pita chips. It was, frankly, disgusting. The garlic of the tzatziki clashed with the subtle vanilla of the cheesecake in an unnatural way and left a slime trail in my mouth.

Nerds Gummy Clusters 3/10
These were a free sample offering of a new Nerds product where the traditional Nerds micro-candies are stuck onto a gummy glob. The most notable thing about this new product venture is that it is perhaps proof that capitalism has peaked and we are now in decline. That, or there’s at least a business school-type lesson in here that starts with, “No, you don’t actually have to expand your product line…”

Barr Bubblegum 4.3/10
Barr American Cream Soda 4.2/10
Despite its eye-popping prices, we get wistful every time we walk past that British confectionery import stall in the convention building. So partially in the hopes of avoiding the monopolistic hold Big Coca-Cola™ has on the C.N.E., and partially to get something from this booth we landed on two cans of pop. We neglected to note, however, that these were sugar free soda drinks. Which positions these flavours somewhere in the same range of a lesser Sodastream substitute that someone chokes down to feel something, anything.

Muskoka Spirits Pineapple & Raspberry Hard Sparkling Water 10/10
Having discovered these hard water drinks recently I’ve got to say they’re particularly effective when a) it’s a super-hot day, and b) they’re ice cold. The flavour is perhaps secondary to the light alcohol + sunstroke buzz and cool refreshalization.

Dunrobin Rye Whisky & Ginger Ale 10/10
Rye and ginger in a premixed can is perhaps slightly less of an experience than the hard waters. But it still ranked and sunshine-filled fall fair day drinking is a distinct pleasure.

Mochi Matcha Kit Kat 6.3/10
Mochi Pepero White Cookie 5.7/10
Every year a crazy, wild, outlandish stunt food gets pitched that’s really just some standard fare from a non-Western culture. This year it’s Mochi donuts, the chewy, bubbly ringed pastry popular in Japan. While they have their moments — the matcha glaze is a welcome addition in the new world — they fail to match the best variants of North American donuts for size, flavour or purpose*.

*That purpose being delicious sugar bread junk food designed to fill your body quickly with empty calories.

Legend Dairy Crookie Monster Croissant Cone 6.4/10
It’s a solidly acceptable and flaky chocolate croissant topped with soft serve ice cream and some googly eyes meant to anthropomorphize the dessert. Its actual appearance — a melting, dripping mess slowly dampening and breaking down said pastry — was comically unlike the pristine product photo on the Legend Dairy booth’s billboard. I wouldn’t particularly recommend it, but its components were at least complimentary despite the aura of blobfish.

Carla’s Cookie Box Butter Tarts

  • Biscoff Butter Tart 7.1/10
  • Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Butter Tart 7.7/10
  • White Chocolate Toffee Butter Tart 7.6/10
  • Strawberry Funnel Cake Butter Tart 7/10

It’s starting to get a little unfair to rate each new year’s Carla’s Cookie Box butter tart offerings. Because we’ve already tried and deeply love all their best offerings we now devotedly try things we suspect we won’t like nearly as much. A biscoff butter tart? “Strawberry funnel cake?” At what point is it the fault of the humble reviewer for putting themselves in a position where they know they will dislike an item? Or at least dislike an item knowing that they also bought a whole separate half-dozen pieces of mouth magic in the form of Nutella butter tarts? We’re probably near the point where continuing to clock Carla’s Cookie contents is closing, but rest assured we’ll still be taking home a couple dozen.

Rick’s Good Eats Deep Fried Butter Chicken Lasagna 8.4/10
Since blowing us away last year with their ridiculous “CNE Special Butter Chicken Overload” we have determined that the Rick’s Good Eats food truck is one of the greatest places on Earth. So it was with a full heart and an empty belly that we dove in to try this year’s creation, “Deep Fried Butter Chicken Lasagna.” There was no deception in the name. It was lasagna that had been buffed up with delicious butter chicken. As tasty as it was, though, the portion was modest and the price was high in a way that meant this couldn’t match last year’s headliner.

Rick’s Good Eats Deep Fried Gulab Jamun 6.9/10
It is with great sorrow, however, that I report their undercard offering of Deep Fried Gulab Jamun did not meet the mark. Gulab Jamun, for those of you who live in a sad state of fear over foods from other continents, is a doughy ball-like confection from India frequently served nearly submerged in sugar syrup or rosewater. If you encounter good, fresh ones, or better yet, all-you-can-eat Indian buffet ones, it is truly a transcendent experience. And this is where the Food X + Deep Fried = Fair Food formula fails. Deep frying gulab jamun basically turns these gifts from the heavens into Timbits, a food experience that is decidedly Earthbound.

Deep Fried Pickle Oreos 2.3/10
More like deep fried shit. This is first item I’ve tried over the years under the “deep fried” banner — including things like butter, chicken feet, mac & cheese and, separately, both pickles and Oreos — that truly sucked.

Fuwa Fuwa Strawberry Refresher 5.8/10
The first couple times we tried the Fuwa Fuwa booth at the C.N.E. were a revelation. The pastries were wonderful, the fresh drink offerings were good and unique. Unfortunately, the thrill is starting to wear off. Getting a mixed cocktail of a soft drink served in a plastic bag has lost its novelty. And after I saw a teenage server pouring Sprite into my bag as the secret bam up ingredient, so has some of the magic. Still ok, though.

Indian Rasoi Paneer Hot Dog 6.2/10
It was a hot dog bun filled with paneer cheese squares. I give the Indian Rasoi folks strong marks for building a stunt-ish food that isn’t really stunt-y in the grand scheme of things but maybe got them some shine and helped support the paneer industrial complex.

Quench Ice Tea 5.9/10
Pretty sure this was meant to be some kind of candy floss flavoured ice tea. Its most notable element, though, was its food colouring nightmare composition that made it look like the sort of thing a child erratically slops together when they’re allowed to pour their own fountain soda drink from the dispenser for the first time and adds a little bit of everything into one cup.

Freshly Roasted Corn On The Cob 7.4/10
Yet another of the midway foods we never really bother with before. Except on this occasion we were heading towards the TTC stop after attending a concert at the nearby Ontario Place Forum and the gals in the booth were doing a fire sale on their remaining cobs because they clearly wanted to close up and go home. I think I paid a dollar. Which at that price point was fantastic for a substantial piece of delicious roasted corn.

Reid’s Dairy Swirl Soft Serve Ice Cream 6.7/10
Got this in the midway after coming out of a show at the Ontario Place Forum when everything else was closed. It was… fine.

Ye Olde Fudge Pot 6/10
Similar to Carla’s Cookie Box, we’ve long been devoted to the fudge booth in the Arts & Crafts building. At last check, though, we’ve considered 14 different fudges from there during our food adventures. And so it was time to try something different, the classic Food Building staple Ye Olde Fudge Pot. Unfortunately, where the craft building fudge had a wild eccentric edge hidden in their slightly overpriced slices, Ye Olde’s fudge is dutifully conventional, square cut, classic. Sure, it’s still fudge, but it’s not the thrill fudge I need in my life.

Smash City Cheeseburger Springrolls 8.2/10
One of our target stunt foods for this year, this was basically a greasy ass cheeseburger stuffed into a springroll casing and it was excellent. The springroll as a delivery device for ground chuck and melted cheese works exceptionally well it turns out.

Oreo Horchata 8/10
This took too long to make but it was pretty bitchin’. It is exactly what the name suggests — an icy horchata with a pile of blended up Oreo cookie in it.

Eva’s Original Crème Brûlée Cone 6/10
The Risky Fuel household has been know to crush upwards of a half-dozen crème brûlée each when we encounter them in places like all-you-can-eat buffets. So we had high expectations for this dessert converted into fancy cone form. Sadly, it was less. The cone itself was a messy, dribbling, charisma-less nightmare and the crème brûlée felt less like an exciting, creamy custard and more like a standard vanilla pudding. If you’re a crème brûlée hater you probably don’t think there’s a difference. But there is.

Maple Lodge Ultimate Chicken Frankfurters 7/10
Now years removed from creating the worst Ex food item ever (Eclair Hot Dog, 2012), Maple Lodge have found a savvy rebrand by just giving out free samples of their gourmet barbecue level wieners. I usually find chicken wieners to be suss but these were fine.

Pineapple Ginger Mojito 10/10
Spiked Strawberry Lemonade 10/10
The bartenders in the outdoor patio by the casino were in a generous mood when we dropped in on a sunny Labour Day afternoon. Maybe it was all the union folk really day drinking in their matching Local tees, but the drinks they made us were gigantic, icy, stiff and filled with signature fruit. The ginger mojito was ginger-y and the spiked lemonade was lemon-y and despite the slightly-too-high price tag we’re pretty sure this was a win for the workers.

The Perogy Chef Sampler Special – 3 Perogies, Sour Cream & 1 Cabbage Roll 6.7/10
We’ve pinged The Perogy Chef before, but never for the sampler deal. The perogies remain solid, slathered in an inappropriate amount of butter and a level above generic supermarket offerings. It’s the cabbage roll that’s the low key win. Nobody actively seeks out to eat a cabbage roll at a fall fair… and yet here we are.

GoGo Squeez Apple Pineapple Passion Fruit Fruit Sauce 3.8/10
This was a free sampler giveaway. I’m not sure who the audience is for this. Desperate middle class parents trying to dodge sugar snack bans in their kids’ schools? Athletes who want a fruit boost during training? People who’ve wrecked their body health so bad, for so long that this is the only “treat” they’re allowed? Anyway, it’s gross. The experience of sucking characterless apple sauce through a nozzle is not one I’d recommend.

Additional reading:

Things I ate at the CNE in 2023. Including Funnel Cake Chicken Sandwich and Thanksgiving Dinner On Top Of Fries.

Things I ate at the C.N.E. in 2022. Including the San Francescos Leaning T.O.wer of Pisa and Mustard Ice Cream.

Things I didn’t eat in 2021 because Global pandemic blues closed the EX.

Things I ate at the C.N.E. in 2020 (COVID National Exhibition Edition). Including Double Wiener Cheese Curd Pretzel Hot Dog and Bacon-Wrapped Veggie Corn Dog.

Things I ate at the CNE in 2019. Including the Snickle Dog and the Cheesecake Factory General Custard Sundae.

Things I didn’t eat at the CNE in 2018 because I boycotted to support unionized workers who were fighting The Man.

Things I ate at the CNE in 2017. Including Deep Fried Chicken Foot and Savory Fried Spaghetti Donut Ball.

Things I ate at the CNE in 2016. Including Bug Dog with Roasted Crickets and Deep Fried Butter Tarts.

Things I ate at the CNE in 2015. Including Corrado’s S&M Burger and Iron Skillet’s Frosted Flakes Chicken On A Stick.

Things I ate at the CNE in 2014. Including Fran’s Thanksgiving Turkey Waffle and Coco’s Fried Chicken Cocoa Chicken.

Things I ate at the C.N.E. in 2013. Including Nutella Jalapeno Poppers and the S’more Dog.

Things I ate at the C.N.E. in 2012. Including the Chocolate Eclair Dog and Bacon Nation Nutella BBBLT.

Things I ate at the C.N.E. in 2011. Including the Krispy Kreme Hamburger and Deep Fried Twix.

Things I ate at the C.N.E. in 2010. Including Deep Fried Butter and Taco In A Bag.

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by | August 15, 2024 · 9:10 pm

Things I Ate At The CNE In 2023

After a few years of pandemic-related unevenness, the Canadian National Exhibition was officially BACK in 2023. Mostly. There was one conspicuous absence in this year’s programming — a wide selection of outlandish stunt foods. What was one of the key anchors of the last decade of C.N.E.s was largely muted. It seems a market shift has taken place and organizers have determined there’s only a modest appetite for things like the mustard ice creams and Krispy Kreme Donut Pulled Pork Sandwiches.

Never let it be said we shrink from a challenge, though. Through dogged determination and ill-advised financial decision-making we were able to try a number of new food experiments.

Here are the things I ate at the C.N.E. in 2023:

Cornehcopia Churro Dog 5.8/10
It’s a hot dog with churro wrapped around it. What could go wrong? Most of it, really. This was an entirely unnecessary creation, not quite novel enough to be pure stunt food and yet not tasty enough to be a low wattage food experiment.

Real Fruit Strawberry Splash 6.2/10
One of the long-running themes of our annual EX food chase is our sad, desperate attempts to avoid the ubiquitous Coca-Cola products everywhere. So it was on to the midway fruit drink stand for Real Fruit Strawberry Splash, a slightly carbonated slurry of lemonade, a healthy pile of strawberries and an unsettling-bordering-on-irrational amount of real mint. It was, despite its outsized ingredients, entirely acceptable.

Real Fruit Mojito Splash 4/10
Sarah’s more mint-first lemonade variant had the unfortunate distinction of having “mojito” in its name, which probably psychologically turned me off of it.

Bratwurst In A Bun 3.7/10
This was my worst item of 2023 and a borderline case for inclusion amongst the worst all-timers. Caught in a moment of weakness and indecision in an overpacked Food Building, the Bratwurst In A Bun stall had no lineup and so I figured it’d be a good, quick win. What I got was a completely normal if oversized panini bun that had a cavity pistoned into it using some weird, pointy phallic rod, some condiment squirted into said hole, and then the brat stuffed into it. Writing this all out now, I realize how completely oblivious I was to the whole Beavis & Butthead grade horniness to this production, but that’s because I was irritated at how much boring ass bread this thing had and how non-event the brat was. It also cost too much at like $14 or something.

I Love Churros’ Caramel Churros 6.1/10
The Risky Fuel household has a running rule that we always have to “try the churros” when we see churros on the menu anywhere because an episode of the old animated series Clone High had a gag where everyone had to try the churros. We’ve already tried the chocolate variant of these churros and because caramel > chocolate these have a slight edge.

Fuwa Fuwa Cheese Pizza Croffle 7.2/10
We had tremendous success in 2022 with Fuwa Fuwa’s cookies ‘n cream Franken croissant-waffle, so this time it was all about trying the more savoury pizza pastry option. While it didn’t quite match the flavour sensation of the cookies ‘n cream concoction, it was experience more elevated than a normal slice of cheese pizza.

Landshark Radler 10/10
Our customary booze stops are generally always 10/10 and the Landshark Radler, which was a combination of Landshark draught and lemonade, hit the spot exactly as expected.

S-Club cocktail 10/10
Hidden in the far eastern corner of the C.N.E. grounds is the food truck haven, a place of superior food and vibes. We bought cocktails from a cash-only booze truck that had sworn off the dreaded token system. The S-Club was 2 oz rye with Sprite and a splash of lemonade.

Glo-Stick cocktail 10/10
A newfound household interest in gin brought us to the Glo-Stick, 2 oz gin with lemonade and orange juice. It was very Snoop Dogg.

Yabba Dabba Curds 4.7/10
Probably our second-biggest mistake of this year’s culinary tour, Yabba Dabba Curds were Fruity Pebbles cereal topping deep fried cheese curds “with a cereal milk glaze.” These two things don’t work together. The Flintstones cereal bits ruin the otherwise underrated deep fried cheese curds with an unwelcome sweet vs. savoury juxtaposition. The fact this cost $16 makes it hurt a little bit more.

Perogies 5.7/10
Simple perogies from an unassuming stand in the Food Building. Serviceable, though lacking any major bam ups like fried onions or spices.

Chocolate Cheesecake Fudge 6.7/10
The fudge booth in the Craft Building is an annual pilgrimage, though one that’s yielding less reward as the price goes steadily up and the thrill of variety diminishes. This chocolate cheesecake might just be the chocolate vanilla I’ve tried before rebranded so it’s getting the same score.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge 7/10
Besides the Reese Peanut Butter Cup, which has perfected the form, I’m less hot on peanut butter + chocolate than most and this fudge-perience was no different. It was good because it was fudge, but it was slightly mid because it was peanut butter-infused fudge.

Caramel Chocolate Pecan Fudge 6.4/10
Pecan pie is on my all-timer list, but this fudge breaks one very important rule — there shall be no nuts in fudge.

Funnel Cake Chicken Sandwich 5.8/10
When I reviewed all the things I ate at the EX this year the Funnel Cake Chicken Sandwich was probably the thing that most made me question my choices. Sure, it wasn’t nearly a bad as the brat in a bun or the Flintstones cheese curds, but it was a magnitude more ridiculous. A specialty of the Fried Chicken Sandwiches booth in the Food Building, this monstrosity featured fried chicken served between two funnel cakes, with strawberries, whipped cream, icing sugar and a cherry to top. Plus, a bonus of side house slaw. It’s easy enough to talk oneself into this by rationalizing that it’s not so different than an order of chicken ‘n’ waffles and the potential for syrupifaction such an order might suffer. The problem here, though, is that funnel cakes aren’t waffles, strawberries aren’t maple syrup and all of these things are better when not paired with fried chicken. In most technical sense, both the funnel cake and chicken were reasonably good. They just didn’t need to be together.

Carla’s Cookie Box Raspberry White Chocolate Butter Tart 7.4/10
Carla’s Cookie Box Toffee Butter Tart 8.1/10
Carla’s Cookie Box Plain Butter Tart 7.8/10
My absolutely always must-gets are the Carla’s Cookies butter tarts in the Craft Building. This year I bought two separate half-dozens and managed to try a few new flavours, including Raspberry White Chocolate, Toffee, and Plain. Unfortunately, none of these meet the exceptionally high standards of their best offerings (the Nutella and the Skor-themed tarts). The Raspberry was, predictably, very raspberry-y and the plain was just outclassed by its more complicated brothers and sisters. The Toffee was at least in the same area code as the greatest hits.

Thanksgiving Dinner On Top Of Fries 8.4/10
This potentially ill-advised experiment from one of the midway booths that usually does roasted corn turned out to be surprisingly excellent. This was conventional fries and cheese curd poutine topped with what could be generously described as “Thanksgiving slurry,” a combination of turkey cubes, mash, stuffing and ubiquitous gravy. The fries were done right and all the Thanksgiving components were fine. The win here was, and this is a rare thing for me to endorse in food, the mess. It tasted like the way that second or third helping of Thanksgiving dinner does, when all the weird side-dishes your aunts bring are gone and all there is left is a pile of mash, turkey and if you paced yourself, gravy.

Rick’s Good Eats CNE Special Butter Chicken Overload 9.1/10
We here at Risky Fuel like butter chicken and we’re also suckers for the ridiculous. So when a food truck called Rick’s Good Eats advertised a C.N.E. special featuring two butter chicken samosas, tandoori fried chicken and butter chicken poutine all slathered in a butter chicken aioli we were duty-bound to try it. And it was amazing. The best concoction of the season. Every individual component — the samosas, the poutine, the fried chicken — was done right and made us feel like we were in the hands of a midway master of their craft (whoever Rick is).

Additional reading:

Things I ate at the C.N.E. in 2022. Including the San Francescos Leaning T.O.wer of Pisa and Mustard Ice Cream.

Things I didn’t eat in 2021 because Global pandemic blues closed the EX.

Things I ate at the C.N.E. in 2020 (COVID National Exhibition Edition). Including Double Wiener Cheese Curd Pretzel Hot Dog and Bacon-Wrapped Veggie Corn Dog.

Things I ate at the CNE in 2019. Including the Snickle Dog and the Cheesecake Factory General Custard Sundae.

Things I didn’t eat at the CNE in 2018 because I boycotted to support unionized workers who were fighting The Man.

Things I ate at the CNE in 2017. Including Deep Fried Chicken Foot and Savory Fried Spaghetti Donut Ball.

Things I ate at the CNE in 2016. Including Bug Dog with Roasted Crickets and Deep Fried Butter Tarts.

Things I ate at the CNE in 2015. Including Corrado’s S&M Burger and Iron Skillet’s Frosted Flakes Chicken On A Stick.

Things I ate at the CNE in 2014. Including Fran’s Thanksgiving Turkey Waffle and Coco’s Fried Chicken Cocoa Chicken.

Things I ate at the C.N.E. in 2013. Including Nutella Jalapeno Poppers and the S’more Dog.

Things I ate at the C.N.E. in 2012. Including the Chocolate Eclair Dog and Bacon Nation Nutella BBBLT.

Things I ate at the C.N.E. in 2011. Including the Krispy Kreme Hamburger and Deep Fried Twix.

Things I ate at the C.N.E. in 2010. Including Deep Fried Butter and Taco In A Bag.

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by | December 31, 2023 · 1:02 pm

Aaron’s Top Ten Concerts Of 2023

Stereo MCs at Shiiine On Weekender 2023

Publishing my annual best album list has gotten a wee bit complicated in the last few years what with my day job at the Polaris Music Prize and the fact that a record or two that are “in competition” always end up making the grade. So I’ve decided to pivot a wee bit and focus on the best shows I’ve been to this year instead. This list overlaps, but isn’t pulled exclusively from my Before They Die™ list (which, if you don’t know what I’m referring to, next time you see me at a show you’ll have to pull me aside for a detailed explanation).

Here are the best concerts I attended in 2023:

10) The Boo Radleys @ Reds, Shiiine On Weekender, Butlin’s Minehead, UK, November 17, 2023
Getting to see the Boos was one of the main reasons why we crossed a continent to attend a weird regional music festival in an off-season amusement park. They played the bulk of their biggest hits, including “Barney (… And Me),” “Lazarus,” “Wake Up Boo,” “Upon 9th and Fairchild” and “Wish I Was Skinny” and almost single-handedly justified our trip.

9) Lee Reed @ Bovine Sex Club, October 14, 2023
Opening for B.A. Johnston. This was absolutely amazing, uncompromised revolution rap from an old white guy from Hamilton. There were songs about eating landlords, fucking up cops, death to gentrification, and anti-capitalism. I was completely inspired by his set and remain inspired weeks later.

8) Nico Paulo @ The Baby G, July 31, 2023
Beautiful voice, beautiful songs. Paulo was great, even though she didn’t actually focus on her very charming self-titled album. In recent years I’ve low-key chased a certain sort of ’60s & 70s-style pop vocalist (think Carole King, Carpenters, Petula Clark, Lesley Gore, etc) and Paulo gets closer to capturing that elusive time period magic than most.

7) Stereo MCs @ Centre Stage, Shiiine On Weekender, Butlin’s Minehead, UK, November 19, 2023
This was an absolute throwdown. They sounded spectacular, they looked spectacular and the beats and the music felt just updated enough to feel seriously heavy, effectively executed and both contemporary and still retro. I was not expecting to come out of Shiiine On fest going, “Holy shit, the Stereo MCs…” and yet here we are.

6) Jairus Sharif @ Polaris Music Prize @ Massey Hall, September 19, 2023
This was one of my favourite actions of the Polaris year. We got Jairus to play his solo freak jazz in front of a bunch of VIPs before the Polaris Gala. It was 15 minutes of wondrous, deviant and challenging noise — exactly the sort of thing we’re meant to celebrate.

5) Inspiral Carpets @ Skyline Pavilion, Shiiine On Weekender, Butlin’s Minehead, UK, November 18, 2023
Besides the Boos, getting to see the Inspiral Carpets was one of the central pillars of our recent U.K. trip and it was entirely worth it. I almost cried like three times and the 1-2-3 of “She Comes In The Fall,” “This Is How It Feels” and “Two Worlds Collide” was beautiful and perfect. I was completely shocked that their closer was a theatrified “Saturn 5” complete with confetti canons, bouncing balls and a whole heap of flourish. But we won’t hold that against them.

4) The Hives @ Lee’s Palace, November 3, 2023
This was hot, sweaty, relentless, perfect rock ‘n’ roll with the band fucking giving it. It also helped that their new album — and in particular the “Rigor Mortis Radio” song — are absolutely deadly. This was probably the only show this year where I lined up for “doors open” instead of cruising in to the joint three minutes before set start and that commitment (and the very good sightline by the Lee’s guardrails overlooking the floor) made for an epic evening.

3) Dayglo Abortions @ Hard Luck Bar, May 20, 2023
The background for this show was that Murray “Cretin” Acton, the band leader for this 40+ year old pack of punk legends, was touring across Canada while he had colon cancer and was basically, “I could sit at home and be depressed, or go out and see all my friends…” It was a remarkable message with remarkable resolve. The first song the band played was some sort of noisy Fuck Cancer ad-lib, but beyond a few funny stage quips about it, the Dayglos played a straight-ahead greatest hits set and the audience treated it like a proper punk show… which is probably the best way to go about it. Cretin made multiple mentions of “community” and supporting the scene and one couldn’t help but feel swept up. The highlight was probably a very hardcore “Drugged And Driving,” which really landed. I was kinda shocked this Dayglos tour hasn’t received more attention in the straight world. Perhaps it’s because they’re punk and old and messy, but whatever, it was an incredibly inspiring, life-affirming, shake-your-fist-at-death set from punk rock masters.

2) BIG|BRAVE @ The Garrison, June 11, 2023
I’m not exactly sure how to describe BIG|BRAVE seeing how “screamy pagan folk doom” sounds a bit reductive for a trio of absolute players who take you on a journey through their dark, dizzying jazz metal world.

1) B.A. Johnston @ Bovine Sex Club, October 14, 2023
I’ve been waiting years to see B.A. and he did not disappoint. Johnston is an absolutely brilliant showman and possibly the best iteration of what a one-man band could be. His crowd work was superb — he poured Hawkins Cheezies bits down my throat, crawled through my legs at one point, played outside on top of a parked car at another point, served bar, sang on the bar, did about 15 costume changes (he just had 15 shirts of his on his body that he systematically took off) and generally ruled the entire evening. The “We’re All Going To Jail (Except Pete, He’s Gonna Die)” Van Halen song as set closer was perfect. This wasn’t just one of the best sets I saw this year, this was one of the best sets I’ve ever seen.

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by | April 13, 2023 · 4:42 pm

Work It Out: A Mood-Boosting Exercise Guide For People Who Just Want To Lie Down Is Now Available Worldwide

Sarah’s second book Work It Out: A Mood-Boosting Exercise Guide for People Who Just Want to Lie Down is now available worldwide via Quirk Books.

Not so much a self-help book as a self-acceptance one, Work It Out meets you where you’re at to help use exercise as a way to improve mental health. If you’re depressed, anxious, burned out, or struggling, it may feel impossible to get started, get serious, or even get up. This book provides clear, actionable, non-judgemental advice on how to navigate that.

A list of places the book can be purchased can be found here.

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